Sisters Elisabetta and Francesca Grillo are accused of using Saatchi’s credit cards to finance lavish designer shopping sprees and fancy hotel stays (as well as more mundane dental treatments and driving lessons) over a four-year period, according to British press reports.

But in an email sent from Saatchi to Lawson in October and revealed in a pre-trial hearing earlier this week, the mogul tells his ex-wife that the sisters would “get off” because Lawson let them use the credit cards indiscriminately because the chef was “so off your head on drugs ... Yes I believe every word the Grillos have said, who after all only stole money.” He also referred to his ex as “Higella.”

In court today in London, Saatchi said he had never seen Lawson take drugs, and that was he was “utterly bereft” that the email came to light, the Guardian reports. “The stories that the Grillos were parading was that Nigella had a severe cocaine habit that stretched back a very long time for the entirety of our marriage. What I was speculating here was that the Grillos would use this as a defense.”

Lawson is the author of several cookbooks, including her signature “How to Be a Domestic Goddess,” which played off her good lucks and sensuous cooking style. She starred in ABC’s cooking reality show “The Taste” earlier this year, and will return for a second season in January.